Be Excellent To Each Other

I'd ignored this game for quite a while despite being very interested when it first came out because of its Capcom-ness. Now that it's cheap as chips, I got it a couple of weeks ago in the Gamestation sale. It got a lot of "average" reviews but I'm not entirely sure why. It's absolutely excellent and I'm loving it so far.

Anybody else got this?

Not yet, but I'm always quite tempted when I see it in the bargains thread. An RPG of some sort, yes?

I've considered it several times, but I've been put off by the reported "stay out in the cold too long and freeze to death" mechanic - is it as major a part of the gameplay as it seems?

Not an RPG at all. It's a third person shooter with a simple complete one level, do the next level structure. The best way of describing it would be; Earth Defense Force with a bigger budget, more awesome graphics and lashings of Capcom goodness. In the snow.

I too was put off by this from what I read on the back of the box, and it's true that your biosuit thing is ticking down all of the time. However, you pick up little heat-blobs from every single enemy you kill and this adds to your suit health. It hasn't been an issue for me yet. It's just the same as any other game with health packs, except you have around 100 times more health points. Only, to balance that, it's counting down all of the time.

I like it lots and lots.

I may pick it up then, as I've seen it at some deeply bargainous prices.

From what I can gather, it seems to have been slated by everyone in the same way DEAD RISING was, and we all know how good that is once you get into it. Unfortunately, Lost Planet wasn't given a chance by everyone because it doesn't allow you to kill zombies with shower heads, and therefore nobody ever questioned the reviews.

edit: It's bloody good fun online, too. Sadly, I just played with some pre-pubescent yanks and they were team killing me. Cunts.

Mmph. I still haven't decided if I love Dead Rising or hate it. I think I love it despite the fact that I hate it.

That's the spirit!

DEAD RISING is the closest a video game has ever been to mimicking real love in a realistic way. Nobody ever loves a girl/boy like they love, say, OutRun for example. DEAD RISING on the other hand - spot on.

Man, don't ever do porn.

Not the physical act of love, natch.

I shudder every time I look at Dead Rising on my shelf, but yet I can't bring myself to trade it in. What that says about love, I'm not sure...

I got 2 or 3 hours into Lost Planet and the number of unavoidable knockdown attacks from bosses just ended up driving me fucking crazy.

Also I hate shooting flying stuff. A lot.

The combat style is quite unsatisfying, and, in the case of bosses, completely infuriating. You often feel that you have got through a boss encounter more through luck and repetition than skill.

It just feels unfinished.

That said, it does have a certain charm.

Charming it is! Don't all Capcom games feel unfinished? It suffers from similar annoyances to DEAD RISING in that the control system is all back-to-front. But, you get used to it after a bit, especially if you played DEAD RISING a lot. Also, I think the boss battles are pretty damn cool. Sure, they're a case of "work out the pattern and shoot a certain spot", but that makes it a lot like a shoot-em-up in 3D, which I think is ace. Plus, the bosses are huge and look fantastic.

And we've failed to mention the big mecha-suits you can wear, a bit like the suits in Aliens. You can attach different weapons to each arm as well, like a gatling gun or a rocket launcher. Fun! And all of the bad guys are heavily inspired by Starship Troopers.

Throwing a grenade at one of the rolling aliens when it is rolling causes it to fly in the air and land on its back, skidding across the snow, allowing you to move in and shoot its weak spot better, which is a nice touch. Oh, and you can use the environment to your advantage. Shooting girders hanging in a warehouse for example, drops them on the enemies. And you can shoot boulders, causing an avalanche.

Ves. It was the size of the bosses that attracted me. I love firing rockets off at huge, looming baddies, watching the trail of smoke 'til they hit. CABOOM.

YEAH!

Anyway, despite its failings, it remains an excellent game and should most definitely be picked up by everyone - it's cheap as chips now.

Right. I've ordered this for 8 sponds from CeX. As I said about Sega Rally, if it's shit I'm going to murder you Jonny.

Woooo! I'm still alive!

Is it just me, or is CeX really slow?

Very very slow.

And there was me getting excited about this thread actuallybeing about a lost planet that had been found. I sometimes forget you're all computer game geeks

Says the person holding a controller and wearing a headset in her avatar...

Oh my! A giant worm! The bosses are colossal. This game is fun.

YEAH!

I had this in my hand an hour ago, sifting through the 630 bargain shelves, but plumped for RR6 and CoD2 to flesh out my collection instead.

Fool, you're a DAMN FOOL! Well, actually Ridge 6 is a good choice. Wouldn't have bothered with CoD 2, though. Excellent as it is, it's just another WWII game when you could be on a planet of ICE and SNOW shooting giant WORMS.

Gah! Stop telling me about potentially good games. I've seen Lost Planet on store shelves a few times and thought about picking it up, but the various reviews have put me off.
If it's got big, frustrating bosses then I'll feel happier about not buying it though - I hate big, frustrating bosses.

They're not frustrating at all. In fact, in the "average" review Eurogamer gave it, they said the bosses were the best bit. Just buy this game! It has been criminally underrated. It has 8/10 all over it, but everyone seemed to give it a 7.

theres a demo on live.

Well there we go, then! See for yourselves!

(I always forget to check for demos.)

The demo might be an old one, though... they changed the game between demo and release.

is it vastly different though? I was quite bored after about 10 minutes in the demo. If someone whos actually got lost planet could play the demo and till me I'm a douche and I should buy the game because the demo was tripe but the game is amazing please feel free.

I'll get it tomorrow in the deal with either Sega Rally or Bullet Witch. CoD is one of my favourite series, having loved one on the PC and four on the 360. Had three on the Wii but as you know, it's a fucking mess. So 2 will represent a good deal for me under a tenner as it is.

I love grotty (as in grotty playing games, not 'ooh it looks grotty') 3rd person shooters for some reason. (I'm currently playing through Brute Force having won the Getaway games again. Gotta get a hold of Kane and Lynch too. (I won Freedom Fighters.))

I haven't bought it because at the end of one of the demo scenarios, you enter through a gate in a fortress wall and are completely outnumbered with no cover.

Did you get in the mecha-suit thing? They're pretty handy and tend to be lying about.

I'll give it a download and give you the low down. Arf.

Okay, I'm getting the E3 06 demo. Stay tuned to find out if it's similar to the actual game. Exciting times!

The demo is pretty much what the final game is like, barring a few differences. It does seem a little harder in the demo, though. For example, getting hit with a big chuff-off rocket is pretty much the end of you, whereas in the actual game you'd be able to recover from one rocket hit at least.

As for the being outnumbered bit, I know the part you're talking about and it's the end of level boss section. The demo doesn't seem to explain that you can get in a mecha man thing and kick total arse, making that particular section a lot easier. In fact, it'd be pretty tough to do that section without a mecha suit.

Overall, if you like the demo, you'll like the game as far as I can see.

edit: Actually, the demo doesn't seem to let you get in the mecha suits like you can in the game. Maybe you can get in one later into the demo, but some of the ones that work in the full game are just burnt out wrecks covered in snow in the demo. In conclusion - the full game is a lot better than the demo, BUT, the demo is a good indication of what the game is like.

I played the demo last night. It seems to be like EDF, but boring.

Bah! It's not boring, it's atmospheric!

It was trudging around in waist high snow, trying to find enemies so you didn't die of cold. I might give it another go tonight when I'm less tired, but it didn't exactly grip me.

Trying to find enemies? There's always an abundance when I'm playing!

Buy it buy it buy it.

There are probably 20 games I want to buy above this one.

Miss Malabar picked Lost Planet 2 up at the weekend, and we've just started the split-screen co-op. Twenty or thirty minutes in, and we're pretty annoyed with it. We'll certainly give it more of a chance, but not on my Xbox for the following: for reasons unknown to either of us, and in true shitty Capcom fashion, the split-screens are laid out Resident Evil 5-style but more exaggerated; we each get less than a quarter of my 24" monitor width-wise with the empty space being filled by a radar that spends most of the time completely empty. I just don't understand the reasons for this. We'll have another go at her house on a larger TV where we can both sit closer, but being unable to resolve any detail when I'm practically right next to the screen, when every other game manages it is utterly stupid.

The game itself seems moderately fun, but the controls are ridiculously backward. Everything seems to require combinations of buttons to pull off, or is in a completely non-standard place on the pad; aiming down your reticle, for example, is achieved via the Up arrow on the D-pad, while clicking the right analogue stick reloads your weapon. It's like they didn't even bother thinking about it, and merely filled a list of available buttons sequentially. Idiots.

We'll persevere, but we're not impressed so far.